Unbeaten records in March have led to monthly awards recognition for Bart Sengers of Caledonia Pride and Jo Leedham-Warner of London Lions.

Dutch play-caller Sengers wins the Molten WBBL Coach of the Month for Pride’s stunning turnaround in recent weeks as, with a perfect 5-0 record in the month, they won more games in March than they previously had in the rest of the season, and surged up into the WBBL Championship Play-off places. That run actually extended back to seven games in all as they also won the last two of February.

Currently seventh in the league with a 9-11 record, there were key victories over teams around them such as Manchester Met Mystics, Newcastle Eagles and Essex Rebels; while they also beat Gloucester City Queens and Cardiff Met Archers to put ground between themselves and teams out of the Play-off places. Three of those wins came on the road for the league’s northernmost team.

Against Mystics, Pride clamped down in the second half and held their fifth-placed visitors to just 25 points after the break, doing similar on the road at Newcastle in front of a record crowd at Vertu Motors Arena, where they restricted the Eagles to 19 in the second half and produced a dominant 22-9 fourth quarter to win the game.

Against sixth-placed Essex Rebels, just one place above them in the table, Pride were fast out of the blocks and led from tip-to-buzzer after hitting an early 8-0 tear before scoring the first seven points of the fourth period to break open a two-shot game.

In particular, Pride’s defence has been outstanding as they have held their March opponents to an average of just 59 points per game, a defensive improvement of 12 points per game on their average, and especially impressive against the usually free-scoring Rebels, the third best offence in the WBBL. Caledonia’s interior protection has been dominant, as their opponents scored at just 39% on the inside in the last five games, with Pride the league’s overall leaders in blocked shots per game (3.8); and that’s alongside an already excellent perimeter defence that ranks as the second best in the WBBL on the season so far.

Their offensive output has also improved to 83 points scored per game in March, 16 points above their average, as again much of that is predicated on their defensive intensity as they have scored a huge 20 points from turnovers on average, which is third only to top three teams London Lions and Sheffield Hatters.

After opening April with a respectable defeat to second-placed Sevenoaks Suns, Pride now face a difficult run-in to the WBBL Championship campaign with a crunch road game at Rebels, as well as clashes with Lions and Hatters.

Meanwhile, Great Britain international star and London 2012 Olympian, Jo Leedham-Warner, scoops the Molten WBBL Player of the Month award for March after her London Lions team were also perfect, 6-0, winning the WBBL Trophy and claiming a crucial league win over Sevenoaks Suns to become the last unbeaten team left standing in the title race.

The do-it-all guard averaged 15 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals in those games, shooting 54% from the floor, 37% from three-point range and 82% at the free-throw line.

While teammate Holly Winterburn scooped the WBBL Trophy Final MVP award, Leedham-Warner also had a memorable game with 14 points, six rebounds and six assists, including perhaps the play of the day as she, characteristically, dived on the floor to retrieve a loose ball before passing it backwards over her head to assist a score.

She had double-doubles to start and end the month, close to a triple-double both times, as first she put up 14 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists against Durham Palatinates; and then went for 20 points, 12 rebounds, seven steals and five assists against Nottingham Wildcats.

Typically, her name is all over the league’s leaderboards, as she is the WBBL’s ninth leading scorer (16 points per game), fourth in steals (3.0), eighth in offensive rebounds (3.1), first in two-point percentage (65.8%), fifth in three-point percentage (41.8%), fifth in field goal percentage (55%), and third in free-throw percentage (91%).

She also has the most appearances of any player in the weekly All-Star 5, with nine, overtaking Oceana Hamilton as she featured three times in four weeks in March.

Lions are 17-0 atop the WBBL Championship table, with the WBBL Cup and Trophy already in the bag, and face the possibility of a league-title decider on the final day of the season in April, away at Sevenoaks Suns if both teams maintain their winning runs.